Olivia Steimel is one of the most active accordionists of the new music scene. Dedicated to contemporary music, she has collaborated with many composers, premiering and performing their works at international festivals (Wien Modern, ECLAT Stuttgart, ZeitRäume Basel, Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Close Encounters Tbilisi, ZeitGenuss Karlsruhe, St. Petersburg Internat. New Music Festival, Internat. Festival of Chamber Music Moscow, SoundSCAPE Maccagno, Happening Festival Calgary, Musikfestival Bern, Innovations en concert Montréal etc.), in radio broadcasts (in Canada, Portugal, Serbia, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Georgia, Brazil and Slovenia), and on CD/DVD recordings (Wergo, NEOS, Thorofon, Austrian Gramophone). As a soloist she has performed with Kammerorchester Basel and as a guest with orchestras such as Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich, Würzburg Philharmonic, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Sinfonieorchester Basel, musicAeterna (Teodor Currentzis), Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the International Ensemble Modern Academy. In 2012 and 2013 she was artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre in Canada. Olivia is also a member of the chamber groups Duo Steimel-Mücksch and Trio SÆITENWIND. Olivia has been awarded several prizes at competitions, including FNAPEC Musiques d'Ensemble (Paris, 2014), Concours Nicati (Bern, 2013), Karlsruhe Competition for the Performance of Contemporary Music (Karlsruhe, 2013), International Accordion Competitions (Klingenthal & Castelfidardo, 2011) among others. She completed a diploma in pedagogy at the Würzburg Conservatory under the tutelage of Stefan Hussong (2012), a Master of Arts in Specialised Contemporary Performance at the Basel Conservatory (2014), and a soloist performance diploma at the Franz Liszt Conservatory Weimar, where she studied with Ivan Koval (2016). She was the recipient of a scholarship from the prestigious Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes for the duration of her various studies. Since 2019 she has been teaching at the Würzburg University of Music. In the season 2024/25 she is Artist-in-Residence at the Augsburg state theater.